Larchmont Gazette Passes the Half-Year
Mark
by Judy Silberstein and Paula Eisenberg
( November 20, 2002
) Larchmont Gazette has now reached the ripe old age
of six months. Since May, the Gazette has published
over 100 news articles, over 80 features, plus editorials,
commentaries, restaurant reviews, letters to the editors
and forum comments. The Community Calendar has become
the successor to the Grand Union bulletin board, with
many organizations using our web-based entry form to
post events of interest to the entire community. Most
important, all of the articles and reader comments have
been directly related to Larchmont 10538.
From May to October, the Gazette's readership has grown
steadily. At the end of June 2002, the first full month
of operation, there were 1,183 visitors who viewed 15,084
pages. By the end of October 2002, the visitorship had
grown ten-fold to 11,310 and the page-views had almost
tripled to 41,190. The web site's statistics program
counts as a visitor an individual user visiting one
or more pages in one day, so a reader who visits once
a week would count as four visitors. Readers typically
roam around the site, and the page-view count reflects
the number of news articles, features or other items
visited.
Larchmont Gazette has also earned recognition on the
World WideWeb. If you search for "Village of Larchmont,"
Larchmont Gazette now comes up in the top-ten links
of the major search engines such as Google, Yahoo and
Lycos. We are also listed with the other media on Kidon
Media-Link and OnlineNewspapers.com. During October,
Larchmont Gazette was cited in New York Magazine, which
singled out our Guide to 10538 as being particularly
helpful.
And unlike a lot of dot.com ventures that have grown
while losing millions of dollars, Larchmont Gazette
remains a lean all-volunteer operation. Its major expense
is $17.95 per month for the web hosting service.
Not bad for our first six months! So, what are we planning
for the rest of this first year?
We are carefully planning coverage of the Village
of Larchmont Board of Trustee elections in March
to keep our commitment to our readers -- balanced coverage
that allows the candidates to speak for themselves.
During the fall State Assembly Race, citizens searching
the Internet for information on either Ron Tocci or
Noam Bramson would encounter Larchmont Gazette's coverage
at the top of the major search engines. There were hundreds
of visitors to the Gazette's political pages, and a
large number of letters to the editor concerning the
race. Clearly, the Gazette became important to both
the voters and the candidates.
We are actively recruiting volunteers to join
us. The Gazette needs reporters, feature writers
and photographers. If you'd like to see your name in
print while making a real contribution to your community,
get in touch with us. We can't offer payment, but we
can offer a collegial atmosphere, fun and satisfaction.
We are on the look-out for new ideas
and services, and are always open to suggestions on
how to improve what we are already doing.
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